By VICKI URBANIK

Chesterton High School has been selected to begin an International Baccalaureate program, a rigorous curriculum that can earn students college credit.

CHS Principal James Goetz announced at Monday’s school board meeting that CHS recently learned that its application to be an IB school has been approved. The announcement prompted a round of applause.

The school board first gave Goetz approval to begin the application process nearly two years ago. The IB program, based in Switzerland, requires students to complete six specific courses during their junior and senior years, in addition to activity in the arts, athletics or a community service project. Students are also required to write a 4,000 word essay at the end of their program.

The IB program is considered prestigious, with only about 1,300 high schools worldwide chosen to participate. In Porter County, the only other IB high school is Valparaiso.

Goetz said that the IB program will begin in the upcoming school year. So far, he said about 25 to 40 students who are now sophomores expressed an interest in participating -- a number that Goetz said far exceeded his expectations of about 10 participants.

He attributed the interest to a combination of “good kids, good parents, good things happen.”

It’s not yet known exactly how many students will participate in the program. Goetz said the next step for CHS will be to get a better handle on the numbers. He also said it is not yet known how many, if any, additional staff will be needed.

Because CHS didn’t know if its application would be approved, the schedules for next year have been prepared as if the IB courses weren’t going to be offered, Goetz said.

When the program was first discussed, it was noted that CHS already offers all but one of the required IB courses, and that the curriculum would probably need to be modified only slightly to conform to the IB standards.

PL 221 Woes

Duneland Superintendent Dirk Baer took note that CHS has been selected for the International Baccalaureate program, as he and Assistant Superintendent Monte Moffett commented on the school placements announced last week by the Indiana Department of Education.

Under the state’s P.L. 221 program, schools are placed in categories based on their most recent ISTEP scores as well as whether they improved on their scores over a three-year period.

CHS and Liberty Elementary School were both placed on the state’s “academic watch” category, the second to the lowest category. Four other Duneland schools were placed in the highest category, known as “exemplary.”

Moffett said the recent headline noting the CHS and LES placements is misleading. He said the scores -- 78.8 percent for CHS and 78 percent for LES -- is just shy of the 80 percent score that would have pushed both schools into a higher category. That correlates to scores for only six CHS students and two LES students who placed the schools in their categories, he said.

Moffett noted that some Indiana schools had lower scores but ended up with an exemplary ranking, only because they made considerable improvements in their ISTEP scores. One school had a relatively low ISTEP score of 51 percent, but still ended up in the exemplary category.

Moffett said Duneland is “not at all happy” to have two schools in the academic watch category, but added: “It is something to be concerned about. It is not something to be panicked about.” Baer agreed, saying that Duneland has outstanding schools but will always strive to keep improving.

Posted 4/8/2008